During the summer months there were plenty of jobs to do on the farm to keep it looking trim. This included keeping down weeds, including thistles. While hand tools were available to take out thistles in pasture, mechanical means were much more efficient.
From the late nineteenth century onwards there were a number of attempts to develop thistle cutters. An especially noted one in the first decade of the twentieth century was the Sutherland thistle and fern cutter, developed by William Sutherland, Peel Farm, Tibbermuir, Perthshire. It was made locally by George Barker, Tay Iron Works, Perth, a maker that also acted as an agent for a number of key makers. In 1903 the Sutherland thistle cutter was noted to be “in great demand”. Barker continued to exhibit it at agricultural shows for a number of years, until at least 1907.
The Sutherland thistle cutter was also sold in Ireland. In 1903 it was advertised in the Irish homestead magazine by the Irish Agricultural Society, 151 Thomas Street, Dublin, as one of the implements it was exhibiting at the Royal Dublin Society’s Spring Show.
How did the thistle-cutter operate? The Dundee courier published an extensive account of the cutter in its pages of 6 June 1902. It is worth quoting at length:
“The Sutherland thistle-cutter
The thistle has always been regarded as a cumberer of the ground, and in past days the scythe has usually been the implement of destruction. A new “destroyer” has been brought out in the Sutherland thistle and fern cutter, built to designs by Mr William Sutherland, Peel Farm, Tibbermuir. This implements, since it was first introduced, has been greatly improved upon, and in its present working order should deal most effectively with not only thistles, but other objectionable hard-stemmed plants so common on many farms. The machine is intended to be drawn by a single horse, going at about the customary ploughing pace, and this forward movement causes the thistles to be cut against a horizontal hanging bar. The knives, moving between this bar and the ground, do their work completely, and the bar being adjustable, there is no danger of the grass being injured. There is also a lever attached to the frame for raising or lowering the knives, which are protected by a steel cover, the driver having complete control of the height of cut. The cutters have a chain drive on each end of the reel, which makes the draught easy, whilst the width of cut is about six feet and the breadth of the machine over all is under nine and a half feet. This is a machine which has proved to be a success, as was proved at a recent trial. The driver of the machine struck a course on the occasion so as to take every hollow and height at right angles, as in the hollows there was one mass of strong thistles. He went through them sending them hither and thither in clouds, admist the hurrahs of those present. The work was splendidly done. Mr George Barker, Tay Iron Works, Perth, is the sole maker of this latest aid to the farmer.”
